Long Term Athletic Development

Long Term Athletic Development or LTAD is at the core of what we, youth coaches, is how we should be gearing up these athletes that we train.  The development of skills an athlete will take with them once they leave your care is a very important part of what defines a good coach from a poor one.  It bothers me when coaches try to do a quick fix with a young athlete and either add in copious amounts of volume or intensity when that person simply is not ready for it.  Sometimes it also comes in the form of the parent who means well, but pushes a child past the amount of training that is necessary for a certain age.

Fundamentals and technique in sport are starting to fall away from the training programs of many youth athletes at an alarming rate for several reasons.  The rise of travel league teams in nearly every sport has taken a wrong turn in the direction we should be taking the future of our respective sports.  Now, it is not uncommon for teams to rarely practice but play in two tournaments a week and never really learn to develop baseline athletic ability.  Also, the play in tournament all the time method also leaves little time for an athlete to learn the rules and strategies of a sport.  Many travel tournaments are called "Showcases" now and the promise of college coaches and recruiters to be on site is listed for most these events.  Sure, the child is getting exposure which is never a bad thing, but we must remember that simply showing up to these events with the prior preparation does little good.

If we really want to develop the younger athletes for success in the late high school/college years we must remember to lay the foundation for success early.  The younger the athlete, the less specific the training should be.  How to train middle school athletes has been an important question of mine since I started working with them a couple years ago and I think there are lots of good training that doesn't have to drain them or burn them out at a young age.  It all just needs to be applied smartly.  In the next few weeks I will make a post in regard to middle school athletic training to address how we can help get these athletes safely and smartly to the next level.